The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-06-16
REORGANIZATION.
Is DIR. McGlynn to Incur the Cen
sure of the Church-History
of the Rite.

From the Brooklyn Citizen.
The forty days given by the pope to the
Rev. DR.. McGlynn to go to Rome and an
swer to the charge of contumacy and here
sy made against him are fast drawing to
close, and the question is debated
whether the doctor will obey the summons
and go; or, whether he will pose as the
Anti-Poverty Ajax defying the pontiical
lightning. Should he refuse to obey he
will, it is stated, incur the penalty of ma
jor accommodation, punishment so
severe and so rarely inflicted that more
than passing note of it is isteresting.
accommodation is an ecclesiastical
censure, by which a Christian is separated
from the communion of the church-a
power deduced from the words of the
Savior. IF he will not hear the church,
let him be to thee as the heather and the
publican" Matt. xviii, IT, In Soglia
Qib. iv. cap. A., the effects of excommuni-
cation are thus summed up: "A man by
baptism is made a member of the chit rch,
in which there is a communication of all
spiritual good, so by accommodation he
is cast forth from the church and placed
in the position of the heather man and
the publican, and is deprived accordingly
of sacraments, sacrifices, sacred offices,
bensices, dlgnities, ecclesiastical juris-
diction and power, ecclesis stical sepulture
In word, of all the rights which he had
acquired by baptism until he make
amends and satisfies the church."
This penalty was known in the mos re-
mote ages to the pagans and to Jews as
we'll as to Christians. Among the Greeks
those guilty of great crimes were given
over to the Furies, with certain terrible
mprecations. They had three kinds of
accommodation: One by which the Grim
inal was cut off from intercourse with his
own family; the second, by which he Was
forbidden to assist at the religious rites
and ceremonies in any temple; and the
third, by which all people were forbidden
to give him shelter, food or drink. The
Romans had similar ceremony, as also
did the Druids among the Celts. The
Jews also inflicted three kinds of excom
munication, the mildest being a thirty
days seclusion from religious and social
intercourse; the next was an addition of
thirty or sixty days more if the ulprit
did not re ent; and then, if he still re-
manned obdurate, he was publicly cast out
of the synagogue with awful excavations
taken from the law of Moses, and given
over as an irreclaimable sinner to the
Divine judgment.
In the Christian church excommunica-
ton was practiced in the earliest ages,
and we find it enjoined by st. Paul and
st. John. After the times of the Apostles
it was the custom both in the east and the
west, in forms modified from the J.wish
practice, to suit the requirements of
Christian belief and worship. 1t Is of
two kinds-major and minor. The latter
is an ecclesiastical censure by which
person is deprived of the sacramAnts, and
it is incurred by communicating with a
person under major accommodation,
where such intercourse is not excused.
The major form deprives of all ecclesias-
tical communion, and is equivalent In
substance to anathema, differing only in
regard to the formalities by which the
latter is surrounded. Major excommuni-
cation can be inflicted by mere force of
law or the written sentence of a Judge,
but the church always mathematics pub
licly and with ceremony. The phrase,
"anathema sit," means "let him be &C
cursed" and the church has used it from
the earliest times to those who are ex-
cluded from her communion either for
moral offenses or because they persisted
in heresy.
There were two classes of the ma or ex-
communicated - those width whom the
faithful must hold neither civil nor re-
liglOus intercourse, i. g., those who are ex-
communicated by name and publicly de-
nounced; and those whom the faith
full are not bound to avoid. and with whom
civil intercourse is permitted. Excom-
munications are also divided into those
that enjoin that the sentedce be pro-
nounced, i. e., "We forbid this or that, |
under pain of accommodation" but in |
which it is not inflicted except by com
petent judge; and the second class, in |
which the sentence falls upon given act
being done, or 'ipso facto," as 1t is |
called. They are also divided into those |
reserved to the pope and those not re-
served. The sentence can be pronounced |
only by those who have episcopal or dele
gated jurisdiction, not by parish priests,
and never by laymen or women. Those
who can be communicated are only |
those who are Christians alive, of sound |
mind, guilty of grave offense, persisting !
in it, and subject to the Judge pronounc-
Ing the sentence.
The severest form of accommodation |
was accompanied in its illumination by
the awful ceremonies mentioned in
history. They explain the anathema of
St. Paul, and were something like the fol-
lowing: The clergy, assembled in church,
came before an altar holding lighted |
tapers in their hands. The bells were
rung, and the celebrant, holding a lighted |
taper in one hand, spread the other on an
open Bible, and, after reciting the crime,
said: Spy the authority of God, the
Father Almighty, God the Son and God
the Holy Ghost, of the blessed Virgin
Mary and of all the angels, archangels,
saints. martyrs and confessors, we excom-
the said N, and we anathe-
mize him.
He closed the book, the bells again
and he threw the taper on the
bround, the clergy followed the example,
and as the smoke arose from the smolder-
ing wicks he continued:
"Thus may his life be extinguished. and
thus may his damaged soul smoke and
stink in the nostrils of the divine ven
geance" "Amen."
"Let him be accursed; let no man show
him mercy, and let the memory of his
name be quite forgotten" amen"
"May God rain flames of sulphur and
fire on him. "A man